Crossgates’ decision to stay open prompts stormy reaction

Retail employee Alli Dillenbeck’s open letter to the mall on the subject was passed from her blog, to Facebook and Twitter users. Commenters on the mall’s Facebook page joined the chorus calling for the mall to let stores close and workers go home during such storms.

After recounting how she struggled to get to the mall Thursday in the storm, Dillenbeck notes that she called the management office only to be told all those responsible for deciding whether stores could close left at 5 p.m.

“Obviously, you care exponentially more about money than the people that work there,” Dillenbeck wrote on her blog. “We all risked our lives driving to and from work. We could have easily spent our last hours on earth in an empty retail store in a mall. So thank you Crossgates, for wasting my time. You really have compassion for the people who work in your mall. Next time, remember that WE are the building blocks to your mall. If we all got in car wrecks on the way home, would you be compensating us for making us stay late? What if we were all killed? Who would open the stores that pay YOU rent? Just think about us retail workers next time.”

Crossgates Mall spokeswoman Jennifer Smith and General Manager Joseph Castaldo did not return calls for comment.

Dillenbeck, who would prefer not to publicly name the store where she works, said her store’s management was open to letting her go but asked her to talk to employees of other stores. She was allowed to close the store temporarily and leave a note saying she’d be back while she found other workers to talk to at other retailers.

“They can fine 10 stores that close but they can’t fine every store,” she said. “Some managers get in trouble if they close.”

While Crossgates didn’t comment, Colonie Center spokeswoman Susan Spacarelli said that mall did stay open. Boscov’s and Barnes & Noble shut their doors early, she said, but she declined to say whether they were fined under their leases for doing so.

“We assess each situation from a safety standpoint,” she said. “Each storm is different. I don’t have a blanket way to say ‘These are the rules.’ “

25 Responses

There is ABSOLUTELY nothing in that mall worth risking anyone’s life getting to or from work in a bad storm. That mall is nothing but cheap crap made in China which is only going to end up in some land fill within a few years. America and all it’s money grabbing capitalists need to get a grip and take a good hard look at its priorities.

We live in the North East – snow and cold is in our blood – stop being sissies and do your job and work —–we didn’t get that much snow to close stores. The problem is our infrastructure – its pretty sad that a few inches of snow cripples this area as the government cannot properly clear the snow.

Oh Puh Lease. What is she whining about? Grow up. So many other people have to go to work in a snow storm and brave it. Its been happening for years. None of us like having to slide to work sometimes, but you drive slow and you get there. What is she going to do in the real world when her office or other place of employment doesn’t close and she has a family to feed?
Get over it. We live in the Northeast.

There’s NO reason why BOTH malls could not have closed early. There is precedent for it. What if CDTA pulled its buses. It was bad out there. Retailers and malls need to put people’s LIVES paramount. NO one needed to shop anywhere in that storm. You didn’t even need to shop Price Chopper, Hannaford, Shop Rite… Everyone had plenty of notice. This is not a hospital or nursing home where staff are needed to care for patients.

We are no longer in school. We do not get snow days. We need to go to work,even when it snows. All of us. Unless it is so horrible that we are told that we cannot use the roads.

If you do not want to then, call in, or leave early, but depending where you work there can be consequences for that. Or take a bus. That is what I do when the weather is bad and I need to be at work. That is part of being a grownup.

Grow up, put on your big girl pants, and deal with it. We get snow in upstate New York, sometimes LOTS of it. 10 inches of snow is not a major storm. I work in public safety and I must report to work no matter the weather, do you hear me complaining? No, I leave earlier and take my time. My work does not close because of the weather and we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. SUN or SNOW. If you don’t like it, MOVE out of the northeast. Pretty sad and typical of the society of wimps that we are developing. What a shame!

Alli, welcome to reality! Malls are constructed and developed to make money. The stores in the mall operate to make money. And you work at the mall to make money. It is about money. If you don’t like the retail scenario, choose another line of work. But be assured that the mall will still exist, the stores will still open in the morning and someone else will be working in your former store.

My issue is that when stores contacted the mall office/ security at 5:30 – they were unaware that the Governor had declared a State of Emergency. What if CDTA decided to stop the buses – mall employees would have been stuck. Also, no one from mall management was even on site to make the decision as to if the mall was staying open or if stores wouldn’t be fined for closing early. Doesn’t a a State of emergency mean all non essential people should be home? Crossgates doesn’t have a grocery store, or a pharmacy, or any medical offices. Making a decision to close at 5 ( when the State of Emergency started) would have allowed employees to travel home when there was some daylight instead of having new employees have to travel in for a closing shift ( most start at 5 or 6) and then leave to get home at 9:30/10 pm.

I manage a store in Crossgates, and had worked the day shift.( and the roads into and home were horrible – the turn from Western to the mall looked like it wasn’t even plowed ).Our DM had told the closing manager we could close early ( at 8) if the mall wasn’t going to fine us. Our neighboring store got a hold of the mall manager at home and was told that any store that closed early would be fined. We remained open because the closing manager didn’t want to be responsible for us getting fined. We have 5 local stores – Colonie, Clifton Park, Saratoga, and Lake George and Crossgates was the only location that remained open.

This is what we get when schools close because they THINK it might snow – “adults” that are whiners and completely ill equipped for real life. Suck it up, Alli. At some point everyone over 40 years old who actually went to school and work in the snow will either be dead or living in Florida so people like Alli can sit back and let the government tell them every minute detail of what and when to do.

Try not to listen to all of the negative/unsympathetic people on here. When the weather is bad, I believe stores should be allowed to close early. You don’t work in civil service, a medical profession, or any other key infrastructure profession. These are the only people that NEED to be at work. People are going to disagree, mostly out of annoyance that they have to go to work when it snows. Their reasoning is “if I have to do it, you have to do it”.

And good luck getting in touch with either spokeswoman Jennifer Smith and General Manager Joseph Castaldo. I have called them about a dozen times over the past few years regarding event sponsorship, donations, etc. They never return calls, not even to say “no thanks”.

We live in the Northeast it snows here… Sometimes alot and we all have jobs to go to some different then others. Suggestions get a better job, Take a cab, drive slow, get better tires… a better vehicle or move!

This is the definition of “the dumbing of America” – it snows, lets close! Should the mall have closed? Definately not. It is a snow storm, nothing new around here. Go to work folks/get over it and not just those that work at malls. @ Barry and Anne: good points – this is not school and those school closing are misleading.

Ms. Dillenbeck had to know that she’d catch all kinds of nastiness and personal attacks from her wonderful fellow human beings for going public about this….however, I’m amused in a sarcastic way with the chorus of phony macho chest-thumping about it’s the Northeast, it snows, suck it up, etc. Yes, back in the old days people did what they had to, even if it meant stringing ropes between telephone poles in Buffalo for people to walk down the street in 6 feet of snow and 15 foot drifts. BUT, back in the old days there was a sense of community. No malls, just shops. Shopkeepers lived above their stores and could unilaterally decide to close down if they got no customers (other than hardware stores or markets, for obvious reasons). People lived close enough to where they worked so they could walk or take public transportation. They weren’t scattered in suburbs 20-30 miles away and anatomically attached to their motor vehicles. Neighbors pitched in and helped each other get where they needed to go, keep warm or eat. People always looked in on the old lady down the street to make sure she was ok and had what she needed, for example. That world is lost forever and we are all poorer–and meaner–for it. Also, in the face of public service announcements warning people not to travel the roads unless they have to and to give the plows a chance to do their thing (THOSE people have to work in this garbage), the chest-thumpers have decreed that anyone who doesn’t jam up the roads when they don’t know how to handle their vehicle in snow and ice with howling winds is a wimp or a wuss. Finally, #1 is correct. Going out to purchase cheap junk from China that will fall apart is not an emergency.

Most of the detractors here miss the point- there were very few actual customers, which barely justifies the risk of having a minimum-wage earner to stay in the mall. The employees would probably have little issue if there were actual sales -the purpose for being open- to be had. The “doctors” commenting here should be reminded that some physicians cancelled their visits, and the “public safety” person whose salary I help pay from my taxes should know that they have a cushy civil service pay.

Not sure why the mall management can’t use a little compassion and common sense since they will still get their rent checks and the percentage of sales they must receive would not be missed due to the lack of customers.

The Governor’s state of emergency doesn’t mean anything unless he also issued emergency orders accompanying the SOE. The orders would indicate what action if any needed to be taken, such as no unnecessary travel or only essential emergency and snow removal staff shall be on the roads. To say there is a state of emergency means what?

My wife is a manager in the mall and she worked the day shift, and was on the phone all night with her night time staff about this issue. For all of you that say this is the northeast it snows deal with it. Well let me ask you, How would you feel if you got a call for your wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, or child that they were just in and accident and seriously injured? It is not always yourself you have to worry about on the road ways. Yes I can slow down and take my time, but what about the person that is not in the same mindset. You also see the people with suvs, trucks, and all wheel drive cars driving like they are invincible.Well news flash, last time I checked 4wheel andf all wheel drives not stop the laws of physics. It is that type of person the puts others lives at risk. And lets be honest with ourselves what at the mall is that important that we need that we need to go out in a snow storm to get. I know for sure if something were to happen to my wife on her way home when at state of emergency was declared and the thruway was closed, you can bet I would be going after mall management for a lack of common sense. The safety of the store’s employees is more important than making money.

I know for sure if something were to happen to my wife on her way home when at state of emergency was declared and the thruway was closed, you can bet I would be going after mall management for a lack of common sense.